Yvette Gopar Professor C. Chavez English 85 29 July 2013 More Than

Yvette Gopar Professor C. Chavez English 85 29 July 2013 More than ever society needs meaning in their lives something that they can relate to, to make sense of their life. Today people are searching for answers and have no clue in how to find them so they begin to find meanings in all things. One such thing happens to be the book by L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. There have been many interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz most of which have not been what Baum had intended for his story. Throughout history The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, has been one of the most popular fairy tales ever written in America. “No other American children’s book of the twentieth century has proved to be as popular or as controversial as the wizard of Oz” (xiv). The book was not only loved by children, but by adults as well. The colorful and descriptive characters were fascinating to the public; they were unlike any other characters of most common fantasies. Dorothy, the scarecrow, the lion, and the tin man are seen as having their own persona. Baum had the ability to work the imagination of the reader to a point where they began to put their own perception of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in their minds. The Wizard of Oz seems to have hidden meanings for many people of different occupational titles. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has easily been construed by any who have decided to read it. Some have believed the wizard of Oz characters to interpret real life people. One such person has been William Jennings Bryan a man who had ran for president back in the late 1800s. Critics believed the characters were used to symbolize groups of people in a time of great despair. The scare crow was the farmers and the tin woods man was represented as the industrial workers. Critics have analyzed the story and have stated that the many interpretations given take away Baum’s real intent for it. “The Wizard of Oz today is probably the most frequently translated American children’s book” (xiii). With this paper I will focus on the translations that people with different titles have interpreted it to mean. Michael Patrick Hearn’s, The Annotated Wizard of Oz was about the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, it annotated the parts of the story that most people have interpreted to have another hidden meaning. Hearn interprets the book as well, but in a different fashion. He investigates and bases his research results on Baum’s personal beliefs. His introduction is composed of a bibliography of Baum’s life and this was what he used to come up with his view and explanation of the book meanings. This is a good source for researching if the people’s interpretation of the book was reasonable. According to the way L. Frank Baum lived and the things he was interested in it seemed plausible. Also, the fact that The Annotated Wizard of Oz has been produced by the actual exploration in depth of the life of L. Frank Baum and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz makes it a reliable source. Hearn explains how certain events in Baum’s life lead him to write the book and how he might have gotten the ideas for the places and characters. One of the reasons was because Maud had told him to write a book for his children. Another reason was his belief in Theosophy all his characters were based on his belief of living with love, wisdom and courage. In John G Geer’s critical essay, “William Jennings Bryan on the Yellow Brick Road” was the interpretation of William Jennings Bryan who ran for president in 1896. “L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written in 1899 as the first of highly popular series of children’s books, was, we shall argue, an allegorical account of the travails of William Jennings Bryan in the presidential campaign of 1896”(1). Geer interprets Dorothy as William’s because of them both being young and headed for an unknown journey. Geer also interpreted the silver slippers that Dorothy wore; to the silver that Williams believed would help get the country out of its depression. This essay can be used to show how Baum’s book was easily interpreted to fit presidential campaigns. Today our presidency can use the significance of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to elect presidents that have the wisdom to lead our country, the courage to fight for what’s right and what they believe in, but most of all the love for the people. The essay “From wonderful to wasteland: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Great Gatsby, and the new American fairy tale,” by Laura Barrett explains how Baum’s fairy tale was the interpretations of actual life events. It was interpreting what is described as the American dream. Barrett also mentioned The Wizard of Oz gave the readers a sense of living life with the notion that it would continue after death. This would be a reason that people would actually begin interpreting it to fit into their lives. “ The fairy tale and similar genres remove us from the time continuum and make us feel that there is another way of viewing and experiencing life, that behind all birth and death, there is another world, resplendent, imperishable, and corruptible” (5). Barrett’s essay also tells about how the tin wood man and the scarecrow are representations of technology. Barrett states that Baum’s story was a symbolism of advertisement and materialism for making money. “Recently, several critics have argued that The wonderful Wizard of Oz is less utopian depiction of American individualism , ingenuity, loyalty, and perseverance or a populist allegory than a celebration of ‘the turn-of-the-century emergence of ‘culture of consumption ,” to use Richard Flynn’s phrase”’ (7). Though the interpretation is said to be over the getting the American people to purchase items. It interprets that the people needed this to accept the change in the industrial change of society of the time. Lastly, the essay “Critical Essay on ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” by Jennifer Bussey, gives a clear description of the interpretations of the characters and events by others. Bussey explains that the way Baum wrote the book gave way to interpretation. She says that there are so many things that allowed the readers to imagine their own perceptions of the story. Bussey explains that the characters that were not human were given humanly characteristics, the places where odd and the courses of the story were all factors. “Baum’s use of opposites also engenders multiple interpretations of the novel” (1). The author states that the use of groups of classified people and rulers could most likely allow the notion that there is an analogy of politics. “An analogy to real-life rulers and political systems can easily be drawn” (1). Bussey essay would work well to see how politics can be interpreted through the wonderful Wizard of Oz and how politicians may use it today to help America’s political party. “The Mythology of Oz: An Interpretation” by Edward W. Hudlin is an essay that interprets L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in a mythological and philosophical way. He uses Joseph Campbell’s methods to make his point. Hudlin’s intentions are to discuss how and why the book provides fulfillment to the reader and how the story follows a heroic myth. Hudlin describes Joseph Campbell’s three parts of the separations of mythic stories. The first one is the departure and it represents the crossing into a magical world from the real world. Dorothy is carried into Oz by the tornado and kills the Witch of the West on doing so. The second is the initiation, where the mythic hero will meet mystical force that will offer magical help or threaten the mythic hero, before they can even begin an adventure. He explains that in Dorothy’s case it is the Witch of the North that gives Dorothy her initiation to Oz. The last part of a mythic story is the return. In the return the hero is returned to their real world either with powers of protection or evil powers that follow them into their realm. In Dorothy’s case the silver slippers are what take her home but then she loses the slippers in the deadly desert but she still holds the power of Oz because she later becomes their guardian. Interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz are important. all though this was not Baum’s intention because, it was strictly meant for the imaginations of the young the interpretations have been made to fit into a category that many people of today could relate to. It has inspired people for over one hundred years. Americans and foreign countries can use The Wonderful Wizard of Oz academically by teaching students the value of lessons that can be learned from it. It is imperative that we understand the interpretations that others have written on the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. We should respect all the authors’ points of views because; we all have our own ideas of what things mean. The fact that someone can read the story and create a meaning of their own shows their appreciation for it. When a person picks up a book and reads it they sometimes fit those stories into their lives to make sense of it. The way The Wonderful Wizard of Oz continues to grab the attention of others increases its popularity for ages to come.

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